


I'm falling so I'm taking my time on my ride

by panchostokes (badwolfrun)



Series: Prompt Fics [72]
Category: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Blood, Car Accident, Crossover, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nick Stokes Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:13:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24111106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badwolfrun/pseuds/panchostokes
Summary: Jack throws a burden on Nick that takes him for a dangerous, unexpected spin.
Relationships: Jack Dalton (MacGyver TV 2016)/Nick Stokes
Series: Prompt Fics [72]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1540795
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	I'm falling so I'm taking my time on my ride

**Author's Note:**

  * For [deltajackdalton](https://archiveofourown.org/users/deltajackdalton/gifts).



> for delta, who sent me an ask, asking me what I'd do with the prompt of "don’t ever do that again." Couldn't tell you what I initially was gonna do but I had a dream the other week about a very blood covered Nick Stokes so...here we are.

Nick doesn’t know a lot about Jack’s past or present line of work, but if he has to hazard a guess, he’d assume it’s some sort of secret agent, based on the limited information the man had given Nick when he showed up to his doorstep, gripping a very distressed looking young woman by her shoulders and shoving her towards Nick, telling him, “keep her safe” and running off without another word.

The woman is just as lost and confused as Nick is, explaining to him that she was just on her way to work when an attempt was made on her life, and Jack had swooped in, taking out the entire gang of criminals within minutes before taking her to Nick. 

Which may not have been the best option either, he quickly concludes as he watches the same black van drive down his street for the fifth time in the last fifteen minutes. 

“Hey, how about we go for a ride?” Nick clears his throat as the woman continues to sit, unaware of how Nick was opening his small end table to retrieve his spare gun. 

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” 

“Not really.”  _ I just relocated my house, I don’t want to go through it again,  _ Nick darkly, selfishly thinks, “But might help both of us to get some fresh air, yeah? A-and maybe we can camp out somewhere a little more…safe.” 

“You…You don’t think we’re  _ safe  _ here?” the woman starts to panic.

“No, no, no, no, not like that, not at all, it’s just that–I-I’m a criminalist. A CSI. I can take you down to the station, we can file a police report–”

“I tried telling that to y-your clone and he said that wasn’t a good idea–which, what are you, brothers or something?”

“Not exactly,” Nick licks his lips nervously, sticking his gun behind his back. “I still think we shouldn’t stay in one place for too long. Don’t worry, you’ll be safe, long as you’re with me.”

He holds out his hand, and the woman cautiously accepts. Nick tries to impart a warm, strengthening smile though on the inside, his own heart is running a triathlon. He guides her towards his car, keeping a lookout for the van but also doing his best to keep his face hidden–though luckily for him, his is clean shaven while Jack’s is more on the scruffy side. Although, “Jack” could have shaved in the short reprieve he got from the suspects, a la someone dyeing their hair while on the run. He quickly reaches into the backseat and pulls out a ball cap. 

Nick has to take a moment to groan with a heavy sigh before he enters the driver’s side car. When did he go from a man expecting a fun, sexy night with his boyfriend while waiting with a six pack and pizza on his night off to an accomplice to said boyfriend’s shady shenanigans?

And more than an accomplice, a potential  _ fugitive,  _ if Jack was not part of a government agency after all, because surely, he would have given Nick added protection if he had the resources, wouldn’t he?

He tries to call Jack as he finally enters his car, to tell him of his plan to bring his ward to the crime lab, if not the police station. He’s already mentally spinning a tale of how she’s one of his sisters, hoping that the team would buy it given that they haven’t officially met his sisters, nor does he recall sharing any pictures of them. Maybe he’s over thinking this, he could just say that she’s his date. Earn some points with Warrick and Greg for landing such a nice catch because that side of him couldn’t help to admit that this woman just so happened to be attractive, suffer the teasing of Sara and Catherine...but what would Grissom think? He can just hear the man’s disapproving tone now, warning him not to fall into the same trap he fell in with Kristy. 

He  _ could  _ tell Grissom the truth, though, couldn’t he? 

He was the more...open minded out of the immediate team, anyway. If he was forced to come out, to admit that he’s in love with a man who could easily be mistaken as his doppelganger, it would be Gil Grissom who would be the most understanding. 

Then again, maybe Greg would be too.

He gets Jack’s voicemail, even on the third call and growls in frustration. 

“Something wrong?”

“No, I’m just tryin’a get a hold of Jack, tell him where we’re going. Don’t want him to freak out.”

The woman laughs at the prospect of  _ Jack  _ being the one to freak out in this situation. Nick can’t help but steal a sarcastic chuckle himself. While the man is charismatically animated, he seems to keep an air of cool about him that Nick envies, even in times of stress.

“He...He acted like this was his job or something,” the woman breathes. “What  _ does  _ he do?”

“Couldn’t tell ya,” Nick mutters. He keeps his eyes peeled for the black van, he’s got the license plates memorized, his fingers dance towards his dispatch radio, contemplating calling the plates in…

But if Jack said no cops, he must have had a reason for that.

Right?

“So you don’t know why those guys mighta been after ya?” Nick asks as he blows past a stop sign.

“No,” the woman inhales. “Where are we going?” 

“Uh...no idea,” Nick admits, he shoots a glance at the woman. Seeing her worried expression, he can’t help but mask his own fear of the situation, and thinks of the next man after Jack that would ease his anxiety. “But don’t worry, I got a friend that can keep us safe, we can lay low at his place.”

He starts his memorized route to Warrick’s place on the other side of town, but as he reaches the main road, he sees the same van. Same license plates. 

He veers off to the first turn he can make. 

The van follows. 

The woman might still be talking, he doesn’t really know. His foot is pressing harder on the accelerator, he’s weaving in and out of traffic, but he doesn’t lose his tail. 

He knows he’s not supposed to, but he turns on his flashers. Runs a stoplight.

The van still follows.

“Alright, new plan, after we pass this intersection, I’m gonna pull off up there, and the  _ second  _ this car comes to a stop, we’re gonna get out and run, okay?” 

“What?”

Nick unbuckles his seat belt.

“Just trust me, it’ll be--”

His speech comes to a screeching halt as his car screeches itself, swerving and sliding and tilting and Nick’s not entirely sure what happens as he feels like the car is thrown into a blender and turned on to the highest setting. He feels something slam against one side of his body as the whole world turns on a ninety degree angle, but his body seems to fall forward in the transition, as something impacts the car from behind.

He shuts his eyes, and when he opens them again, for the first few seconds, all he sees is red. His eyes flutter open, but his left eye is glued shut, something sticking his eyelids to the dimple of his cheek. All he hears is sirens. Whooping. Screaming. 

He manages to get both eyes open to see flashes of blue sparkling on the glass in front of him, or is it red? It alternates like a strobe light, adding to the stinging of his temple.

“No! Let--go--of--me!” the girl screams, the pitch of her voice rising and falling with the sirens. 

“He-heyyyyyy!” Nick moans as he sees two long figures pulling the screaming girl away.

“It’s okay, miss, I’m here to help you,” an air of authority, could emergency response have gotten there so fast? He smells smoke and motor oil. His heart sinks as he realizes there must be other cars crashed around them, realizes he must be in the eye of the storm as he can’t even see the neon hanging in the sky above. 

But then again, the logical part of his disoriented mind is telling him that might be because he still has his cap on. 

“Don’t...take her…” Nick groans. He tries to move, something pressing against his stomach--he hunches upwards, his hands laid out across the hood of his car and pulls himself forward.

“Sir, it’s okay, just hang tight, Dalton’s on his way,” the figure calls out to him. The voice is warbly, but feminine. Authoritative. Through the vortex of the centrifuge he’s spinning in, he can see that she’s dressed in her own ball cap and jacket, he’s vaguely able to identify the paramedic’s patch.

“Jack--Jack told me to protect her…!” he grunts. He slides out of the car completely, startled to find he was crawling sideways before he re-orients himself on the ground. He pauses for a moment to gather his breath and re-calibrate his senses as he sees splotches of red blossom on the back of his hands--something’s dripping. From his head. 

He moves up a hand, nudges the hat off as he feels for the source of the blood. He feels the gash between the two slits of skin that is just  _ pouring  _ blood, oozing down the side of his face like a waterfall. 

_ “Sit down and put that seatbelt on, son!”  _ his father’s voice chastises him sternly, a young boy bouncing eagerly in the front seat.

_ “Don’t worry, Nicky, it’s all fake!”  _ his brother comforts him as they watch a gruesome wrestling match.  _ “Even with a little cut, you always bleed more from the head, but it’s not that painful.” _

_ “Keep her safe,” _ Jack tells him before he runs to his GTO in Nick’s driveway and hops in. But the car isn’t driving away, it’s driving towards him in the distance as Nick tries to locate the girl, his eyes purposefully wide, he feels his jaw lock as it hinges open, sucking in wafts of the smoky air. Jack’s car is the only solid object in a sea of motion blur swirling with alternating colors, the noises blending together in one loud shrilling siren’s call that pulls blood out of his ears. He can’t distinguish between the voices that are speaking, shouting, screaming, except one voice. 

Jack’s voice.

Jack’s voice is the anchor that he tethers himself to. He crawls further, closer to the car, but when he lifts his head up to check his progress, he’s shocked to find the man himself crouching down in front of him, holding out his hands, waving and hovering in front of Nick.

“--safe!” he shouts.

“W-what? Jack?” Nick scrunches his face, which was a mistake, because now his left eyelid is glued shut again.

“You were supposed to stay  _ safe!”  _ Jack repeats, his tone firm. To make his point, he pulls on the bill of his ball cap, and lifts the hat off of his head.

“Safe...girl...girl not safe…” Nick wheezes. He tries to get to his feet, but falls back down. Jack helps him up, pulls him into his lap and holds him, tentatively moving the folds of his jacket to search for injuries. 

“She is safe. My friend Sarah’s got her. I’m talking about  _ you,  _ dummy!” Jack gently shakes the man in his arms as Nick’s head rolls back and to the side.

“Car followed us,” Nick explains, words being pulled out of his brain as slowly as pulling the heavy set of weights he’s been working on at the gym. He was secretly hoping Jack would notice his developing muscles. 

“Yeah, that was one of  _ my  _ cars. You didn’t think I’d leave you without a watch, didja?”

“Kinda did. But-but...the crash…”

“Yeah, well, that’s where you did something right, I guess. Car that crashed into you was the last of the group that targeted poor Naomi over there.”

“N-Naomi?” Nick winces. 

“Yeah, that’s the girl’s name. You didn’t even think to get her name?”

“Was a little...busy tryin’ to get somewhere  _ safe!  _ Why couldn’t you have told me you had someone following me?”

“I didn’t wanna freak you out,” Jack shrugs. 

“And you thought not tellin’ me that there was someone circling my house,  _ watching  _ me,  _ wouldn’t?”  _

Jack sputters as his mouth hangs open in a gape. Nick can’t help but smirk at the floundering man who he knows, has to admit, Nick has a point. 

“Y-yeah, well, you-you thought rolling a car on its side was such a good idea?” 

“Yeah, I did!” Nick grins stupidly. 

“Don’t ever do that again!” Jack seethes through gritted teeth, though his eyes scream a small amount of pride as he examines Nick’s handiwork.

“Yeah, don’t plan on it,” Nick groans, touching a hand to the side of his face again, feeling the bristles of his sideburns that are coated in crimson. “Lotsa blood.” 

“Damn, yeah, we gotta get you some help--Paramedic!”

“Nah, I’m f-fine, just needta...sleep…” Nick’s breathing slows, his blinks becoming longer. He feels lightheaded, so lightheaded that sleep comes easier than ever before.

The thought of that unsettles him enough to shake himself awake, forgetting he’s in Jack’s arms he tries to struggle out of them.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, easy there, Nicky, don’t fight it…” Jack’s voice soothes him. He feels a hand cover his cheek, one that isn’t his own. “Easy...just get some shut-eye, we’ll talk in the hospital.”

“You better be there when I wake up...got...some words for you…” Nick warns him, knowing Jack’s knack for disappearing at the worst times. 

“I bet you do, Nick. I’ll be there. I promise.” 


End file.
